Coronavirus York updates; 5th May 2020

Waste tips to reopen. Green bin emptying and bulky waste removal services also to restart

Cllr Paula Widdowson, Executive Member with responsibility for waste services said: “I’m pleased to announce that all of our waste services will resume over the next two weeks.
“Today we have agreed changes which mean:

• Household Waste and Recycling Centres will reopen from 11 May by appointment only to residents and commercial waste customers for essential use.
• Bulky waste collections will restart on 11 May
• Garden waste collections will start on 18 May.

“The decision we took back in April wasn’t one we took lightly, however it was crucial we were able to keep residents and staff safe. I would like to thank residents for their understanding and also our incredible staff who have continued to collect household waste and recycling in these challenging times.

“The wellbeing of residents and our staff has been our number one priority and following resident feedback, we explored options to restart all waste collection services, including garden waste collections. In addition, these services can now be opened safely as staff absences have stabilised and we have developed new ways of working.

“Following my letter to the Secretary of State seeking further support and guidance to resume our services as soon as possible, the government released updated guidance today. The guidance advises that journeys to tips must only be undertaken if your waste or recycling cannot be stored at home safely or disposed of safely by other means.

“The household waste and recycling centres will also have social distancing measures in place in addition to our booking system. We will announce further details of the changes, including the booking system tomorrow.”

Confusion over grants to micro businesses

The City of York Council says it is gearing up to deliver a new government grant scheme aimed at local businesses, small charities, B&Bs and market traders.

It is unclear whether the grants will be in addition to any made under the Council’s own micro business grant scheme launched on 3rd April. The Council has not said how much of the £1 million, that they said they had put aside for those grants, has actually been spent.

York is set to receive around £2.2 million to support small and micro businesses that do not qualify for the existing grants or the self-employed income support. Council staff will work to ensure that the grants are received as rapidly as possible once details of the scheme are announced.

The figure represents the 5% ‘uplift’ promised to councils on the amount received through the coronavirus grants for small businesses and those in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

Local authorities have to wait for final details from the government but the scheme aims to help:

  • Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible work spaces
  • Science parks and incubators which do not have their own business rates assessment
  • Regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessment
  • B&Bs which pay Council Tax instead of business rates
  • Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief

It is available to businesses with fewer than 50 employees and facing ongoing fixed building-related costs. Applicants must have been trading since before 11 March, and able to demonstrate that they have suffered a significant fall in income due to the Coronavirus outbreak.

Councillor Andrew Waller, executive member for the economy and strategic planning, said:

These are extremely challenging times for the people who run York’s businesses.

“From day one it’s been our priority to get relief into business’ bank accounts as securely and quickly as possible, with over £105 million distributed in a matter of weeks, nearly 90% of previous grant announcements. We’ll do the same with these grants, and are working with neighbouring councils to make sure that, as resources allow, there is as much consistency as possible.

We hope that the Government will provide regulations to councils quickly so that we can announce details of how to apply early next week.”

Because the scale of the financial award to local authorities has been fixed, but the number of qualifying businesses and charity properties will emerge and vary, the council cannot immediately say how much each grant will be worth.

Full details of the scheme are expected to be announced by the Government later this week. Grants will be distributed by an application process. It is acknowledged that it will take a little time to set up this process to ensure all the correct checks are made.

Almost 90% of previously announced grants have now been processed with City of York ranking 12 out of 314 local authorities for the quickest payments to local businesses. Officers are continuing to work through these, as well as the micro grants.

Coronavirus York updates; 29th April 2020

Coronavirus cases in York

here are 258 known cases of coronavirus in York out of a local population of 209,893. That is a rate of 1229 cases per million – the 142nd highest rate in England.

Government loans for small businesses but York grants scheme flops

The new government “Bounce Back Loan” scheme will launch on 4 May 2020.

The scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000. The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.

Loan terms will be up to 6 years. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan. The scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders.

Read more here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-a-coronavirus-bounce-back-loan

Meanwhile the York Council has still not provided an update on its grant scheme for “micro” businesses prompting concerns that the scheme was just a bit of “window dressing”. The scheme promised £1 million in funding.

Criticism of the Councils reaction to the health crisis is increasing in other areas. It appears that only a small proportion of the residents who volunteered to help have actually had their offers taken up while several businesses say they are continuing to deliver food in the City but were not included on the Councils recent advertising leaflet.

Coronavirus York updates; 24th April 2020

More Coronavirus cases and deaths in York

FIVE more patients with coronavirus have died at hospitals run by York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, taking the total number of such fatalities to 96. Two of the further five deaths were at York Hospital, taking the total number of deaths there to 58.

Latest figures from Public Health England show there were 224 confirmed cases in the City of York Council area today (April 24), compared with 209 yesterday.

Sainsbury’s open longer.

Sainsbury’s supermarkets will be open from 8am -10pm and many convenience stores will open until 10pm or 11pm.

For elderly and vulnerable customers, the stores still offer dedicated shopping hours between 8am and 9am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

NHS and social care workers can shop in our supermarkets from 7.30am to 8:00am Monday to Saturday before they open. 

This afternoon there was only ONE person waiting in the queue outside Sainsbury’s local store on Beckfield Lane

Micro business grants

Launched 3 weeks ago, the £1 million York Council micro business grant scheme continues to have a low profile in the City. Although the Council has boasted of its success in administering quickly central government business grants, it has been less forthcoming about the success of its own grant systems.

The scheme had been targeted at “providing £1 million in support to help York’s small and micro businesses” who were set to miss out on government support. The  micro business grants scheme would deliver grants of up to £1000 to 1000 self-employed, micro and small businesses who need it most. 

No progress report on the scheme has been published.

There is a similar lack of performance information on financial assistance schemes for  individual residents.

Supply chain and staffing concerns at York Council

 An internal memo from the Council has said “At this point (public) services are well placed and working as well as could be expected. The main risks as we move towards the peak will be staffing availability and increasingly the closing down of the supply chain”. The nature of the supply chain jeopardy has not been spelled out.

The Council also goes on to say, “ The economic impact will be significant and there is likely to be a new normal appearing across the economy as people have embraced new technologies and homeworking over the last few weeks. Planning to ensure the council deals effectively with anticipated surges in demand on services as things return to normal is expected to start when we have greater clarity over the likely extension of the current lockdown”.

The Council has refused to release a copy of its “business continuity plan” (BCP) to a prominent local Councillor. The decision has fuelled concerns that the authority may not have been as well prepared for a civil emergency as had been previously expected.

Other Councils have published their BCPs “on line”

Scam Emails

The police are reporting a substantial increase in the number of scam emails.

One apparently saw a bogus message from the Lord Mayor generated although the circulation was limited. It followed a similar attack on another Councillor a few weeks ago.

An internal warning note from the Council said, “the nature of the attack was social engineering i.e. the user hoped to illicit a response by targeting colleagues of the user being impersonated. It was also fairly unsophisticated in that it did not include any malicious links and the senders real e-mail address was not particularly well concealed”.

Separately North Yorkshire Police are reporting,

“A total of 9,473 phishing emails linked to sextortion have been made to the NFIB phishing inbox between 31/03/2020 – 19/04/2020. There has also been just over 200 reports made to Action Fraud in the last week.

Sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are coerced to pay a BitCoin ransom because they have been threatened with sharing video of themselves visiting adult websites. These scams are made to appear all the more credible because they provide seemingly plausible technical details about how this was achieved, and the phish can sometimes also include a password used by the recipient.

The current campaign threatens that if the victim does not provide a payment within a specific timeframe (payments usually ranging from $1,000 to $4,000), which is requested into a bitcoin wallet, then a compromising video will be shared to all their contacts and social media channels.

What you need to do

  • Do not reply or click on any of the links in the email. You can report the email to Action Fraud at actionfraud.police.uk/report-phishing.
  • Don’t be tempted to make the Bitcoin payment. Doing so may encourage more scams as the fraudster will know they have a ‘willing customer’.
  • If you have made the Bitcoin payment, you should report it to your local police force by calling 101.
  • If the email includes a password you still use then change it immediately.

For more information, visit: actionfraud.police.uk/sextortion

Ramadan

As Ramadan starts new advice has been offered to those celebrating Ramadan. Whilst asking people to stay at home this Ramadan it offers advice for during Ramadan. A blog has been published as Ramadan starts today, with more information to follow. The blog includes information and advice and messages of support from Muslim leaders

“On Line” Council meetings from 7th May.

City of York Council will host the next Executive meeting online on 7 May 2020 (The agenda will be published on 29 April).

Council staff have been working to enable and support new virtual meetings, so local residents and organisations can engage with Council business during the outbreak of coronavirus. This work includes supporting the requirement to host safe and secure, virtual meetings online.

Members of the public who want to speak at meetings will be encouraged to contact the Council’s Democratic Services Team, as usual, and register to speak.  Those who register to speak will then be provided further details on how they can dial into the public meeting and contribute.

There is still no news about the Councils plan for its annual meeting which was due to be held at the end of May. It is almost certain that this will have to be held “on line” with any ceremonial delayed until later in the year.

Air Quality

We revealed the least surprising news of the year a few days ago when it became clear that the absence of high polluting commercial vehicles and coaches for York City Centre during the current lockdown had resulted in improve air quality. The Council has now confirmed this and listed the effects on individual streets. 

The analysis shows improvements in air quality (nitrogen dioxide concentrations) compared to ‘business as usual’ figures for specific areas of York where the council undertakes regular air quality monitoring, including:

  • Fishergate: a reduction of 43 per cent
  • Fulford Road: a reduction of 28 per cent
  • Gillygate: a reduction of 29 per cent
  • Heworth Green: a reduction of 27 per cent
  • Holgate Road: a reduction of 32 per cent
  • Nunnery Lane: a reduction of 38 per cent
  • Lawrence Street: a reduction of 29 per cent
  • Bootham: a reduction of 16 per cent

Average nitrogen dioxide reduction across all York sites is 30 per cent.